The work itself depicts a bald, skeletal figure in a blue shirt standing at a popular suicide spot on Oslo’s horseshoe-shaped bay where people could often heard screams from a nearby insaneasylum, according to art historians. Munch’s sister, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, was housed in that asylum. (There’s still debate over whether Munch’s character is actually screaming or using his hands to muffle the sound of surrounding screams.)
据艺术史学家说，作品本身描绘的是一个身穿蓝色衬衫、骨瘦如柴的秃顶的人站在奥斯陆马蹄型海湾上一个常常有人自杀的地方。在那里，人们常常会听到附近一家精神病院里传出的尖叫声。蒙克被诊断为精神分裂的妹妹就被关在那家精神病院里。(至于画中人物究竟是在尖叫，还是用手捂住耳朵阻挡周围的尖叫声，仍然存在争论。)
The third in a series created between 1893 and 1910, Sotheby’s version was created with pastel on rough board and offered in its original frame, which is inscribed with an 1892 poem Munch wrote, which inspired the work. In the poem, he says he was walking beside that fjord when he sensed ’an infinite scream passing through nature.’
苏富比拍卖的作品是蒙克在1893年到1910年之间创作的系列作品中的第三幅，用粉蜡笔在粗木板上绘成，和原配的画框一起出售。画框上题写了蒙克作于1892年的一首诗，正是这首诗激发了这幅作品的创作灵感。蒙克在诗中说，他正在海湾旁边行走，突然感觉从大自然中传来连绵不绝的尖叫声。
Historians hail Munch for breaking away from the Impressionists who still held sway over the art world in the late 19th century. Instead of playing with light and shadow to capture the world around him, Munch experimented with ways to visualize his own tormented emotions--a shift that helped pave the way for the Expressionists like Egon Schiele along with later AbstractExpressionists like Mark Rothko.
19世纪末的艺术界由印象派主宰，而对于蒙克同印象派决裂的做法艺术史学家历来称赞不已。蒙克没有运用光影来描绘他周围的世界，而是通过各种实验将自己痛苦的情绪呈现为视觉。这种转变在某种程度上为席勒(Egon Schiele)等表现主义派以及后来的罗斯科(Mark Rothko)等抽象表现主义派奠定了基础。
